Amazon calling

Redd up, of course, but Pittsburgh shows well

When Amazon representatives visit Pittsburgh to determine its viability as a location for the company’s second headquarters, the city should do like any family does when expecting company in town for the first time: Tidy up the house and plan to wow the visitors with quintessential hometown experiences.

Officials should patch as many potholes as they can and pray that no more hillsides collapse from frequent rains. They should empty the garbage cans and sweep the litter from streets and curbs. They should make sure the streetlights are working and thedrug pushers are not. As a host might sheepishly alert house guests to temperamental plumbing, the city should assert its commitment to fixing the broken Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority and halting wetweathersewage overflows that foul riversand basements.

But Amazon, which is sending representatives to check out all 20 cities and regions that are finalists for the company’s $5 billion HQ2 investment, realizes that every last one will have potholes and other problems. The company’s representatives will have their eyes fixed elsewhere. They may want to see some of the sites Pittsburgh promised for a campus or discuss the financial incentives that the company has been offered — details that Mayor Bill Peduto and county Executive Rich Fitzgerald have kept secret in defiance of a state agency’s ruling that the Amazonbid is a public document.

Mr. Peduto and Mr. Fitzgerald say they fear that making their offer public will give their 19 rivals a leg up. They should have more faith in Pittsburgh’s competitiveness and concentrate instead on highlighting the people, places, food, music, innovation, workforce, universities, hospitals and research centers that squarely place this city head and shoulders above the others.

Amazon doesn’t have to take government’s pitch at face value. As Mr. Peduto pointed out, Amazon likely has sent covert intelligence-gathering teams here already. In addition, Amazon currently has a small but permanentworkforce here — on Feb. 22, the company announcedplans to hire another 125 people and double the size of its South Side “Tech Hub” — and those workers certainly could speak to Pittsburgh’sremarkable quality of life. In any event, visitors from Seattle won’t be fazed by rainy weatheror overcast skies.

It’s unclear when Amazon’s official HQ2 scouting delegation will arrive in Pittsburgh or how long it will stay. While there is no shortage of views to dazzle the visitors, Mr. Peduto and Mr. Fitzgerald should consider taking them to the spot on Mount Washington where a sculpture of George Washington and the the Seneca leader Guyasuta look down on the Point, the city and the Ohio River Valley. It’s an appropriate place to remind Amazon that Colonists and Native Americans, the British and the French, Virginians and Pennsylvanians, and immigrants of all stripes have claimed this bountiful area as their own over the years and that Amazon would be fortunate to have a foothold here, too.